Sometimes I still have moments when I look around and think, wow, I´m so lucky to be here. Inevitably, it´s easy to take for granted the beautiful hills chocolate box aesthetic etc etc etc (after all, otherwise it´d be necessary to walk around in a perpetual state of wide eyed admiration, preceeding every statement with "oh wow, I can´t believe...") but it is nice, every once in a while, to appreciate some of the nicer aspects of life here.

Leaving a seminar, I was struck by how I could see pointy little gingerbread houses looking down on me from a vantage point above. Turning the other way, the schwarz wald on the other side of the river was lit up with late afternoon winter sunshine in the way that makes things look gold. I dunno, I don´t really want to wax sentimental about it because I think it would sound kind of schmaltzy and probably detract from what I´m actually trying to say.. I think grandiose language sometimes actually detracts from what it´s attempting to represent. You know, ´oh great, yet more majestic hills and enchanted forests..´... I think maybe, sometimes, it means more just to say, well.. it´s really nice.

So, I've been here for a month and a half now. Wow. That's gone quickly. I'm really glad I signed up to do a pre-sessional intensive language course - it's been a great way to meet people. In fact I can't imagine what things are like for people who've only just turned up. There are quite a few other Erasmus students in our halls which is good (we needed some new blood) and they seem to be settling in pretty well, but I really appreciate having had that extra month to settle in prior to classes starting.

So, what else? I've chosen my modules for this semester:

The Fairy Tale: History, Theory and Contemporary Versions - basically, a lot of Angela Carter, Brothers Grimm, and theory from people like Jack Zipes. This is the only seminar I've actually had so far, and out of a class of 30 or so, there was only one male student. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that; amused, but a little disappointed not to have more male perspectives on the subject, I think.

The American Postwar Counter-Culture and the Arts: Texts and Contexts 1945 to 1975 – stuff like the Beat poets, and a bit of good old Hunter S. Not an area I know very much about, and the preliminary reading has turned over a few gems. In particular, Lenore Kandel who wrote totally obscene hippie love poems, described in one quarter as being “as if Elizabeth Barrett Browning had taken acid and set about to describe the sex act as a cosmic event.” Great fun. It's also quite interesting learning about the beats as a counter-culture movement, as the formulation of alternative social groups and their impact upon the artistic landscape has always been something that has interested me.

Gender and the Internet – This is conducted online, which I think is really interesting, particularly given the nature of the module. Gender studies is obviously something I take an interest in anyway, and I've been quite fascinated of late with the way in which the internet is affecting human interaction in a variety of ways, so this module combines two areas of interest. I'm a bit curious about how the module will be marked though – it's worth 6 credit points, 2 of which come from participation in the class online forum, 2 come from course preparation and 2 come from a group internet project. So it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Spaces of Decivilization: Norbert Elias's Cultural Theory and American Literature – this module looks really interesting; I'm expecting it to be quite challenging but I decided if I didn't go for it then I probably never would push myself and where's the fun in that? Basically it involves a famous and well respected theory of the civilizing process by one Norbert Elias. His theory has been applied to European states many times but never really to America – and inherent problems rise when one tries to do so, as (without going into too much detail) America has always contained “spaces of decivilization” like the wild west, the ghetto, etc etc. So I will be studying the work of Elias and seeing how it stands when applied to the Usa, and then looking at how these “spaces of decivilization” are portrayed in American Literature.

Then I'll be taking the rest of my credits in German Language tuition, although it remains to be seen how successful this will be.


I really like the fact that we have a lot more freedom here to choose our modules than we do in Leeds; although it's due partly to my having studied straight Philosophy in first year (level 1 phil students don't have any optional modules except for electives, which does make sense from the perspective of making sure students are well rounded in a mostly new discipline, but also was quite limiting) I have to confess there have been times when I have been frustrated by the lack of wiggle room in the Leeds curriculm. On a few occasions I was aware of feeling like I was merely studying an approximation of the areas I genuinely took an interest in; being able to indulge my intellectual curiosity here within less limited confines has given me a great deal of enthusiasm. Which is nice. :)

That's all for now I think.

My favourite thing about Heidelberg so far....

...is that there is a colony of green parrots! They are so cool, when you go past certain trees in the evening there is a flurry of bright green and parrotish .. sqwarks? screeches? I don't know the technical term. They don't have that in Leeds :)

We do not often head out, into the wilderness any more.

As one friend assured me, as she released me from a friendly goodbye embrace, “We can still talk on facebook all the time.”

The meta-existence that people of my generation conduct in the online world drastically reduces the impact that long distances had on friendships in the past. Even somewhere as distant as the top of a mountain or a country on the other side of the world, a person can still be in touch every day with friends back at home – participating lively in group jokes, observing the evidence of hedonistic nights out and providing friendly observances on every day occurrences. It might not be as satisfying as having a quick pint and a catch up with a friend in the afternoon before work, but it's certainly a damn site better than goodbye meaning goodbye for long periods of time – with only the occasional letter to provide a wonderful but limited, just out of date window into the everyday lives of loved ones. The letter is a wonderful means of communication but it is easily forgotten that, lacking extensive hours of leisure time a la the Victorian upper classes to craft finely wrought, elegant communiques, it's simply not practical to serve as ones sole avenue to friends and family. And quite besides that, upkeeping worthwhile correspondence with 30 or 40 or however many people one wishes to be in regular communication with eliminates any time for the pursuit which caused one to leave in the first place! Far better that we conserve our efforts in this field for a select worthwhile few for whom it is also an enjoyable and rewarding activity – but what of the other people that it is simply unimaginable to consider growing apart from?

Considering this, it is fortunate that mobile phones, text messages, email and facebook mean that we are part of a constant flow of information between ourselves, friends and our wider extended circle – with transmission of knowledge (who kissed who last night, who has Glastonbury tickets and who is suffering from a broken heart) on an almost instantaneous level, accessible by those who choose to seek it. Layers of privacy surround communications to differing extents, of course – think about the different people who can access, say, a public twitter post, facebook wall comment, private blog post, forum private message, email – but regardless of levels of encryption, these masses of information all exist as part of one huge mass, existing geographically nowhere and everywhere all at once.

Someone told me once that ants, part of sophisticated hive societies in which everyone must play it's role as part of one unified greater purpose, send their “youths” individually out into the world to explore – alone, distinct for the first time from the colony which has. and will define their very existence, from prior to conception to after death. The idea is presumably that, by having time to freely pursue their own goals and aims, the individual ant will eventually return satisfied to the colony and settle down happily to become a breeder/soldier/worker – or while out in the big wild world (possibly halfway through a gap year program working with underprivileged children in Asia, one assumes) undergoes some kind of spiritual transformation or experience and realises that happiness can be better found in the homely life, en-swathed in the bosom of the mother queen and alongside hundreds and thousands of brothers and sisters. Obviously, the story is intended to suggest certain parallels are drawn between the ant and the young human traveler, heading out into the world in an attempt to search for a meaning inherent in life and decode the supposed signifiers of the universe. I have no idea whether the ant story is even remotely grounded in fact, but it serves in itself to provide a layer of meaning and some kind of quasi-mystic animalistic context for the travels undertaken by so many people of our generation, in the search for something unknown – providing meaning and justification for the quest for meaning and justification, if you will.

So when I move, as I am currently in the process of doing, to Heidelberg in southwest Germany – a place I have visited only once before, speaking a language I am far from capable with – I have no idea whether or not, at the end of the year, I will return to the UK placated by my experience and willing to join the ranks of the breeders, soldiers or workers as part of our colossal colony. I do not know whether I shall have come across some hidden truth or layer of meaning which my youth has shaped my life into a quest for – or whether I will learn only the irrelevance of such truths. The only thing I can be sure of as I go forth into the wilderness, armed with my laptop and camera and a mild penchant for web 2.0 exhibitionism, is that regardless of where I end up – I will still be a part of the hive.